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The latest round of labor troubles at Berkeley-based non-profit Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (BOSS) stemmed not from managerial malice but from improperly filed time sheets that delayed paychecks to employees last week, Executive Director boona cheema said Tuesday. 

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) halted payments to the homeless advocacy group in late July, she said, after a HUD audit found that the agency had unwittingly filed incorrect paperwork for its eight grants with the federal agency. 

Employees represented by the California Professional Employees Union Local 2345 filed a complaint Friday with the California Division of Labor Standards after BOSS failed to make its scheduled payday. A finding in favor of the union could cost BOSS $50 for each of the roughly 100 unionized workers made to wait for their checks. 

Union leaders said they were furious with management for risking the welfare of workers, about half of whom were at one time homeless and live paycheck to paycheck. 

“BOSS workers will have to become clients if Boss doesn’t uphold their responsibility to pay their employees on time,” said Christopher Graeber, Business Representative for BOSS employees. 

Graeber ripped management for promising to provide five days notice before missing a payday, but then alerting employees on Sept. 2 that BOSS checks scheduled to go out on the fifth would be delayed until Wednesday. 

BOSS Director of Human Resources Paul Sedler said the Labor Day holiday prevented BOSS from giving employees earlier notice and that employees in dire straights were given cash advances. 

cheema blamed the funding mix-up on new rules implemented by the Bush administration that have changed billing procedures. She said that months of payroll forms and time sheets must be resubmitted to comply with new rules before funding resumes. 

BOSS plans to send revised paperwork to HUD next week in hopes that it will regain funding by the end of the month. 

Without its bimonthly deposits from HUD, BOSS maxed out its credit line and found itself unable to meet payroll. cheema said that the agency recently received grant money from state agencies that will allow it to meet payroll on Wednesday, but that another delay is possible. 

“I hope that this will not happen again, but I can’t promise that it won’t happen again,” she said.